1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a card and a host apparatus, for example, process at the termination of the power supply from the host apparatus and initialization of a memory card and a host apparatus that uses the memory card.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a memory card, which is a removable storage device, has often been used in various portable electronic apparatuses such as personal computers, personal digital assistants (PDA), cameras, or cellular phones. Among the memory cards, PC cards and small-sized SD™ cards are gathering much attention. The SD™ card is a memory card containing a flash memory, a card controller, and the like. The SD™ card is specifically designed to meet requirements such as a reduction in size and an increase in capacity and speed.
The prior art specifies an initialization time of at most one second for the SD™ card. Thus, all the conventional SD™ cards are manufactured in conformity with this specification. However, as the capacity of the SD™ card increases, it becomes more difficult to reduce the initialization time itself. Accordingly, the reduction of the initialization time is limited. In particular, the initialization time cannot be simply increased even with an increase in the capacity of the SD™ card when the card is used for digital cameras, movie cameras, or the like, because these devices are required to be able to carry out photographing immediately after power-on.